Gecko butt-dials 'bazillion' times from Hawaii seal hospital

By JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER , Associated Press
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This Oct. 3, 2018, photo provided by The Marine Mammal Center hospital director Claire Simeone shows a gecko on a phone at the center in Kailua Kona, Hawaii. The gecko is the culprit in making numerous calls in the phones' recent call history with his tiny feet. (Clair Simeone/The Marine Mammal Center via AP)

HONOLULU (AP) — If you got incessant phone calls last week from a hospital that cares for Hawaiian monk seals, you were butt-dialed.

Or, more specifically, foot-dialed.

By a gecko.

Marine mammal veterinarian Claire Simeone was getting lunch when she got a call from the Big Island hospital where she's director. There was silence on the other end. Nine more silent calls followed. Fearing a seal emergency, she rushed back.

She wasn't the only one getting calls, and people started asking why the hospital was calling non-stop. Simeone says on Twitter the phone company acknowledged a "bazillion" calls were made.

Simeone walked into a lab at the hospital and found the culprit. The gecko was perched on a phone, making calls to everyone in the recent call history with "HIS TINY GECKO FEET!"